[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Royboy39

Jim...Where in the fifties did you meet an enemy warship with bigger guns than the Royal Navy?

The yanks, who else?

We never fired live shells nor had live ones fired at us during exercises. We used starshell that exploded in mid air well above the ship (in theory, although we had a starshell whistle through or rigging now and again) and a flare on a small parachute drifted down or ‘break-up’ shot for targeting a drogue pulled by an aircraft.

If it was above the ship it was classed as a hit. Our little old 4.5 inch main armament could only fire about 8 miles but they could reach us from a longer range.

With our armament we could take on anyone, if we could get close enough. The STAAG’s and Bofors for aircraft (the old slow variety but then there were few jets) the big guns for pounding ships or shore and ten torpedoes to dispatch other ships. With assorted small arms, but no cutlasses. Ratings had a .303 Lee Enfield rifle, PO’s and CPO’s had a Lanchester sub machine gun and officers had a Webley revolver and sword. OK! They didn’t really have a sword except for ceremonial occasions.

You will notice from the picture that there is only one lifeboat, a 32 feet cutter that would hold maybe 30 people. There was a 28 feet whaler on the port side, which held 28 men. In the event of a ‘problem’ it was a case of “Stand back you cowardly ratings, officers first.”